Surgical bandage.



A. BAUER. SURGICAL BANDAGE. APPLICATION FILED 111151.31. 1912.

A 3 955654'a Patented June 24,1913

vALEOK BAUER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 BAUER & BLACK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

SURGICAL BANDAGE.

) To all 'whom may concern:

Be it known that I, ALECK BAUER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook andA State of Illinois, have invented certain new' and use'- ful Improvements in Surgical Bandages, of which the following is a-speciication.

My invention relates to surgical bandagesin general and mo-re particularly to bandages that are' sold to the trade in the form of rolls, each rollbeing comprised of a single long strip o-f suitable fabric from which shorter bandages o-f desirable length are intended to be cut or torn as they are needed by persons using such bandages.

As is well known to surgeons and those skilled in the dressing of wounds, bandages of this sort are ordinarily torn from along strip of gauze or other suitable bandage material of desirable width, the length of Ythe portion so torn -being dependent upon the contour of the member to be dressed and the number of encircling thicknesses desired for the protection of the wound u on t-he said member. After the bandage as been wrapped about the member in the proper manner it is customary to retainit `ing t-he end portions and rendering them string-like and uneven. The end portions when produced by tea-ring an Y ordinary bandage in the hereinbefore described manner and tied .together about a memberl tend to press the bandage into the wound much as would a cord vdrawn tightly about the bandaged member, irritating the wound and when, as is frequently desirable, the bandage is fastened snugly about the said member they tend to retard and 1n many cases even stop the circulation of the blood withm the member.

A principal aim of my lnventlon is to `produce a bandage so constructed thatl 1t 'may be torn along one or more longitudinal lines without the hereinbefore described distortion of the portions formed by thus tearing the bandage and to permit this tearing to be accomplished throughout 'any desired portion of its length.

A further aim o-f my invention is to produce a bandage in the form of a roll of desirable width adapted to have shorter band- `ages formed therefrom by tearing or cutting it laterally into the desired shorter lengths and to construct the bandage so that the lengths however' long may be to-rn alo-ng one or more longitudinal lines without the hereinbefore described disadvantages attendantupon the bandages heretofore in use.-

Further aims and advantages of my invention will be apparent as it is better understood from the following description, whichV taken in connection with the accompanying drawing forms one preferred embodiment thereof.

On the drawing :4i-Figure l is a front elevation of a bandage roll embodying my in- Specification of Letters Patent. Patented June 24, 1913 Application led January 31, 1912'. Serial No. 674,577.

having the portion of the bandage 11 unrolled therefrom. To permit the bandage to be torn without distortion of the longitudinal threads,as has been hereinbefore described, I weaken the transverse threads along a central line 12 extending throughout the length of the bandage. This weakening is preferablyy accomplished by scoring it in a suitable machine by means of a dulledged roller traveling alongv the line 12, although it will be obvious thatthis scoring may be accomplished in rany convenient manner.

It will be manifest that when it is desired to use a bandage made in pursuance of my invention the bandage may be cut or torn laterally from the roll in the desired length and wrapped around the injured member where it. may befastened snugly in position by merely separating the free end along the line A12 into two. portions, disposing these portions oppositely around the outer surface of the bandage embracing the woundedmember and tying them together in the usual manner. The division of the end of the bandage may be accomplishedby merely grasping it with both hands as at 13 and 14 and separating the hands so grasping the end portion, when it will be found that the bandage partseasily along the line 12 forming the tWo comparatively Wide portions 13 and 14', as is shown in Fig. 1, which Will permanently retain their ribbon-like form and Which Will hold all parts of the bandage in firm Contact with the member incased thereby. lt will be obvious also that when a bandage embodying my invention is used to protect a sensitive Wound thatthe numbervot layers of material interposed between Ythe Wound and the encircling ret-aining ends may be materially lessened in that the tension necessary to retain the bandage in place isevenly distributed across its entire Width instead of being concentrated along a single encircling line as is customary where the hereinbefore described string-like ends formed by tearing an ordinary bandage are employed.

lVhile l have disclosed a bandage Weakened along a single line, it Will be obvious that a number of such lines may be used are used. 1t Will be obvious also that various changes may be made in the location of t-he dividing line and in other minor details Without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention or sacrificing any of its'advantages, the -form hereinbefore disclosed being merely one preferred embodiment thereof.

l claim:-

1. YA surgical bandage having transverse threads crushed along a longitudinal medial line to permit the bandage to be readily divided throughout a portion of its lengt-h Without pulling the said transverse threads from their normal position and distorting the bandage.

2. A surgical textile bandage roll comprising a bandage having the transverse threads scored along alcentral longitudinal line extending throughout the length of the bandage forming the roll.

ALECK BAUER.

Witnesses WVM. O. BELT', T. D. BUTLER. 

